This subject has come up a couple of times recently, and I wanted to pass on this information to you.

Have you had one of the following happen?

–    You get a friend request from somebody you’re already friends with; or
–    You get a friend request from somebody and you have absolutely no idea who they are.

You probably have…  What did you do?

Last year I received a friend request from a client who I was already friends with.  It was her name and her pictures on this new profile.  I immediately messaged her on her old profile to find out what was going on.  It was an imposter – a fake who was friending all her friends.

Last week I received a friend request from a well-known evangelist.  My first thought was, there’s no way it is real.  Why would he friend request me?  I looked at his profile before responding and he was targeting members of a group I’m in.  Some members didn’t know who he was but saw he was friends with others in the group and accepted his friend request.  This week there’s been conversation in the group about the friend requests.

At least once a month I get a friend request from someone I don’t know.  When I look at their profile, they’re just beginning to build their friends, and I think, this person has to be up to no good because if they weren’t, they would start building their Facebook presence with people they know!

I’m writing this article this week because I want you to be aware that these things are happening.  People are creating Facebook profiles for the sole purpose of scamming others.  They’re asking for money and in some cases, they’re getting it.

Make sure to protect yourself from someone pretending to be you.  Be sure to update your privacy settings so that only friends can see your posts.  Also be sure to change your profile picture and cover photo often.  And finally, change your settings on your photos so that only your friends can see them.  For more information on how to do that, click here. 

In closing, when it comes to accepting friend requests, use your judgment!  If something doesn’t look quite right, it probably isn’t.